This is a brief song-fic based on Hinder's "Lips of An Angel" (I instantly thought of Naley when I heard it again for the first time in a long time - such a classic).

All rights/lines from the song belong to the band.

. . .

Nathan Scott stared, unblinkingly, at the vibrating cellphone cradled softly between his left palm, contemplating briefly, whether or not he should answer it.

The name he could never quite forget flashed across the screen, along with an image of her hauntingly beautiful smile. Even after everything, he could not bring himself to delete it, for it would mean eliminating the only trace of sweetness mixed between the bitterness of the memories she left him with.

"Hello?"

The word arrived in a hushed whisper. He had to be careful. With a surreptitious side-eyed glance over his shoulder, Nathan checked to make sure the woman he'd left in bed was still asleep.

"Hi," the voice on the phone, drenched in a throaty huskiness, infiltrated his ears. He couldn't see her, but he knew she was gnawing on her lower lip with worry.

"Hales, why are you calling me so late?" It was best to be direct - but her former nickname spilled from the rim of his mouth before Nathan even had a chance to stop it. "It's kinda hard to talk right now," he added in another panicked whisper. The woman stirred slightly from across the room, but her eyes remained closed.

He haunched over in the chair and sighed. It was nearing midnight - she was probably drunk and alone. This wasn't the first time.

But, when he heard the faintest sound of sniffles on the end of the line, Nathan's spine straightened and the panic morphed into a different form of worry.

"Why are you crying? Is everything okay?"

Another sniffle and a brief pause. "I-I'm fine. Why do you sound like that?"

Nathan attempted the swallow the rock growing on the edge of his throat, "I gotta whisper because I can't be too loud."

She didn't answer, but he could hear her soft breaths and erratic sniffling.

"She's in the room with you," Haley finally deducted.

Nathan tried to swallow, but the rock blocked any air from entering.

"Yes."

"I should have known."

"It's okay," he was desperately distinguishing any of her lingering regrets. "I'm glad you called."

"Really?"

He heard hope. It pulled upwards at the edges of his lips.

"Yes," Nathan repeated hoarsely. "You have no idea how much I miss you. God, sometimes I find myself wishing she was you."
The truth was not simply dripping from his lips, it was splattering everywhere. He could try and cover it with feeble lies, but you can't stop water from rushing out after the pipe had already burst.

He was not proud of it. He was not proud of thinking about Haley when he was kissing another woman - a woman he was expected to be faithful to. It was happening more frequently than before. She was appearing in his sleep now, disguised as an angel, coming for his lips.

Nathan's eyes snapped shut, disgusted with himself.

"I guess I never really moved on," he admitted aloud, then wondered whether it was meant more for himself than for Haley.

"Nathan…" she said, but the words trailed into the static between their cellphones.

"It's really good to hear your voice," he said. His name never sounded sweeter.

Coming from the lips of an angel, he silently added, it made him weak.

How had it been over a year since they last kissed? He never wanted to say goodbye. They barely even had a chance to be together. When their TV show was canceled, they swore they would try for real. No longer would they simply pretend to be a couple. Their exploding chemistry, that was far from fictional. The kisses - her soft, delicate lips - were real. He'd never been kissed the way she had kissed him.

Nathan could spend the rest of his life kissing someone new, but he'd never find a pair of lips like Haley's. They were made to be melded to his.

But they never had the chance. When the show ended, Haley flew across the country to film another show, promising she'd return.

Nathan waited patiently.

Until she told him there was someone new.

He covered his broken heart with a string of one-night-stands and with bottles of cheap vodka, eventually settling for a woman who promised not to leave. And, yet, when Haley James calls, he would threaten his entire future just to hear her voice.

One word from her has him forgetting their entire past.

"Yours too. I really miss you, Nathan."

He swallowed thickly. He should hang up now. But he didn't.

"You make it so hard to be faithful," he admitted, "you know that?"

"Yeah," her voice was soft but unwavering.

"It's funny that you called me tonight," Nathan cleared his throat quietly. "I've been thinking about you all day."

"So have I," Haley said. "I can't stop. No matter what I do, you're always on my mind."

He smiled at her words. At least he wasn't the only one.

"Does he know you're talking to me?"

"We're not together anymore, you know that."

Nathan released a heavy breath, the weight resting on his shoulders sinking in the process.

"If she knew it was you I'm talking to right now, it'd start a fight," he said.

"Does she?"

"No, I don't think she has a clue." His eyes trailed towards the bed to make sure Alex was still sleeping. "But she knows how I felt about you. She gets jealous."

"I made a mistake, Nathan. I never should have left."

His whole body slumped deeper into the chair. She still had the power to make him completely falter.

"Hales," he finally said after a long unsettling silence, "why are you calling so late?"

"I was hoping she wouldn't be around-,"

"You know what I mean," he snapped his eyes shut again. It was too late. She was too late.

"I can't move past the 'what could have been'…" Haley trailed. He couldn't either. Nathan's mind wandered past her words. He knew they'd be together. Happy.

He'd spend the rest of his life kissing the lips of an angel.

"Please, Nathan," she begged. Her voice was laced with utter desperation. He stood up slowly.

"Are you in L.A. right now?"

"Yes."

His eyes locked on the front door, "I'll see you in ten minutes."